Abstract:

The path to a more sustainable economy involves a set of economic transitions, implying sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneur Universities foster students' capacity to develop new ideas and turn them into thriving businesses. So, understanding how universities can most effectively contribute to student entrepreneurial intentions is of utmost importance in the context of the present economic transitions. In the framework of the theory of planned behavior, a prospective entrepreneur needs to perceive behavioral control to turn a positive attitude into a conative intention to perform the behavior, say, start-up a new sustainable business. The perceived control depends on the perceived resources, such as knowledge and stocks of financial and social capital.

In the present paper, the role of universities is modelled as developing students’ skills, which, in turn, will increase the perceived behavior control (PBC) to start-up a business. Another factor that could build up PBC is students’ exposure to entrepreneurship outside the university. The model was assessed with data collected among 242 postgraduate students from Portugal, Poland and Turkey. Results showed PBC is a relevant predictor of entrepreneurial intentions. Exposure to entrepreneurship training in the university positively influence the perception of how supportive the university is to help the students developing ideas and turn them into practice. This university support plays a major role on students’ confidence regarding their skills to nurture a business, the knowledge capital posited to increase PBC. Skills related to finance and marketing influence the PBC, however the model explains only 1/4 of the variance of PBC, suggesting that other sources of variation should be studied. Taking students’ exposure to entrepreneurship (inside and outside university), perceived university support, and entrepreneurial skills into account, this study provides valuable new insights to evaluate the effectiveness of current university support practices and strategies that boost student entrepreneurial intention.

Acknowledgements:
Research funded by the EIT European Institute of Innovation & Technology HEI Initiative under the project "ETEIA - Energy Transition Entrepreneurs in Action". Grant agreement No.: 10036.

Keywords:

Entrepreneurial intentions, Perceived university support, Entrepreneurial skills, Perceived behavioural control.